​At the end of 2017, I visited the world-renowned Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. I've been fortunate to have been to the Museum several times in the past, but I admit, it's been too many years since my last visit. As a professional artist, it's important for me to draw inspiration from the many artists whom I admire, both from the past and from present day. So, when I visit New York, I always make an effort to visit art museums, art galleries, and stumble upon public art installations.

In recent years as you've read in my previous blog posts, I visited museums like the Whitney, the Guggenheim, MOMA, the Brooklyn Museum, the New Museum, the Jewish Museum, just to name a few. I encourage you to look through the Categories Listing on the right side of this page and click on what interests you, whether it be museums, cities, or famous artists.

The Met has been in the news this past week because it was announced that its admission policy is changing, requiring visitors to pay for admission (the Museum has been pay-as-you-wish for over 50 years). The new admission policy will go into effect on March 1, 2018. Residents of New York State, and students from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut will remain pay-as-you-wish. Children under 12 will remain free. Be sure to check out their website for more information: www.metmuseum.org

​I'd recommend purchasing your ticket(s) online and arriving to the Museum when it first opens. You will wish you had more time for your visit if you don't! The line for admission seemed to span the entire length of the huge museum, but having purchased an advance ticket, I was able to walk in a separate door, check in, and head straight into the galleries. Admission will get you into the Met Fifth Avenue, the Met Cloisters, as well as the new Met Breuer.

I didn't have the chance to visit the Met Cloisters and the Met Breuer. My visit to the Metropolitan Museum of New York on Fifth Avenue was amazing. First of all, it is massive. I forgot just how large the museum is that is located on the Upper East Side on Fifth Avenue between East 80th and East 84th Streets. ​ This blog post covers my experience of the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Fifth Avenue, mainly what was on exhibit in their Modern & Contemporary Art galleries, 19th and Early 20th Century European Paintings and Sculpture, and some of their Asian Art collection. There were also two special exhibitions going on that I'll include: One on the hugely talented artist David Hockney. And the other on an artist that you may have heard of before, Michelangelo! At the end of this blog, I'll include a few other artistic surprises outside of the Met I encountered on my trip to NYC.

I started in the Modern and Contemporary art section of the Museum, which spans from around 1900 through the 1950s. The photo here is a striking painting from artist, Georgia O'Keeffe. In an earlier blog article, I posted a photo of O'Keeffe's painting of the Brooklyn Bridge. CLICK HERE TO VIEW. Upon her relocation to New Mexico, her artistic interests changed from the buildings and bridges of New York City to the natural elements of New Mexico. In this work of art, she isolates a single skull, highlighting its jagged edges, worn surfaces, and sun-bleached bone color. The skulls and bones that she paints (this is one of may similar paintings she did while living in New Mexico) represent the desert's beauty. In the painting here, she makes reference to the strength of the American spirit, with the red, white, and blue imagery.

"Cow's Skull: Red, White, and Blue" Oil on Canvas, 1931

This Pablo Picasso painting shown here is called "The Dreamer" and was painted in 1932. It features one of his lovers and muse and portrays a very sensual image. I love how he uses simple forms to depict the woman's body using primary shapes. I've included some close-up shots of the detail, including his iconic signature!

Pablo Picasso, "Woman Asleep as a Table" Oil and Charcoal on Canvas, 1936

Pablo Picasso, "Reading at a Table" Oil on Canvas, 1934.

This next photo, a painting by the Spanish artist, Joan Miro, is rather fascinating... It is called "Photo: This is the Color of My Dreams" and was painted in 1925. I write a lot about Joan Miro in my Blog that features the art of Barcelona. I visited he Miro Museum last winter. You can read more about the art of Barcelona as well as about my visit to the Miro Museum HERE. This painting is one of a number of paintings in his series called "Painting-Poetry," which combines words and symbols to portray his interest in dreaming and the subconscious mind.

The painting also reminds me of Rene Magritte's painting, "The Treachery of Images" also known at "This is Not a Pipe" and features the French writing, "Ceci n'est pas une pipe". I believe it is on display at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, so hopefully I can see it again on my next visit!

​This painting to the left by Joan Miro called "Circus house" is Tempera paint on canvas and belongs to a series of paintings related to dreams.

This oil on canvas painting on the right is by a female artist named, Kay Sage, titled "Tomorrow is Never" and was acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art because of her contribution to Surrealism in American art. She painted landscape forms with dull and sad color-tones as a metaphor for the human mind and psychological states of existence. I love the architectural feel of the painting, and it reminded me of a scene that one might see in a futuristic science-fiction movie!

Max Beckman, "Beginning" Oil on Canvas, 1949.

In Marc Chagall's painting shown below, "Le Pont de Passy et la Tour Eiffel," painted in 1911, we experience a fascinating view of Paris and the Eiffel Tower. The important thing about this painting is its composition. Chagall uses several converging diagonal lines: the bright red road, the orange cement wall, and the lines denoting the blue sky. If you think about the time period of the painting, it's interesting to note how it depicts some of the modern changes to the city of Paris, including the Eiffel Tower, the construction of the Pont de Passy Bridge and technologically modern train, electrical power-lines, and how it is juxtaposed alongside the element of the horses and wagon alluding to and earlier time in history.

I love Stuart Davis' artwork. He was influenced by the Cubist language of flat, overlapping planes and wedges and uses unique geometric shapes to create an abstract still life. The painting shown here is called "Percolator" and depicts an old coffeepot that is both abstract and identifiable.

The Rockport, Massachusetts-themed painting below by Stuart Davis is called "Report from Rockport" and is oil on canvas. I love all the colors, lines, and shapes that are depicted in this painting. I've included a detailed close-up shot as well. This painting is representative of Davis' Color Space Theory, in which juxtapositions of colors are used to create the illusion of depth in artwork.

Stuart Davis painted this in 1939 as a mural for Studio B WNYC at the Municipal Broadcasting Company. Oil on Canvas.

With the onset of the Industrial Revolution, painters like Fernand Leger incorporated streamlined forms and contours of assembly-line production into their artwork. In the painting shown here, "Three Women by a Garden" painted by Fernand Leger in 1922, three generations of women are depicted. "Woman with a Cat" was painted in 1921.

I love this painting shown here to the right by Rene Magritte called "The Eternally Obvious" created in 1948. I learned that he first painted this nude portrait of his wife, which he later cut into sections and framed them separately, or reassembled them onto glass.

I thought this was a very cool piece of artwork by artist, Jean Arp, shown above. It's Oil on Wood Relief and is titled "Torso, Naval, Mustache-Flower." I think it's kind of bizarre in a cool way.

Piet Mondrian is one of my favorite artists. Here is one of his iconic paintings called, "Composition" completed in 1921. It's an early example of the geometric style of painting that Mondrian called Neo-Plasticism, that emphasized planar relationships in painting, architecture, and design. Many people who look at my own personal artwork sometimes comment that they see hints of a Mondrian influence in my artwork. Here is Mondrian's painting at the Met, next to one of my paintings!

Mondrian used black lines to divide the canvas into rectangles that are sometimes painted in shades of blue and red, creating lighter hues by mixing primary colors with white. Later on in his artistic process, Mondrian stopped creating these hues and used pure, primary colors. In comparing his painting with mine, we each use an entirely different process to create our black lines and blocks of color. If you notice, the black line at the bottom right of his painting doesn't quite reach the bottom. To me, it detracts from the overall design. Here are two other artists, whose works are hung alongside Mondrian's at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Fritz Glarner, "Relational Painting Number 64" Oil on Canvas, 1953.

Burgoyne Diller, "Second Theme" Oil on Canvas, 1938-40

I love Jackson Pollock's artwork! The painting below is called "Number 28" and was painted in 1950. His drip and pour paintings are widely recognized as his greatest achievement in art. He used simple sticks or paint stirrers and enamel house paint, sometimes poured right from the can, spilling lines directly onto raw canvas spread on the floor. What I love about his paintings are that the paint on the canvas we see is a record of the artist's creative process and his movement as he walked around all the sides of the canvas.

One of the Special Exhibitions on display during my visit was "Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman and Designer." Michelangelo Buonarroti lived from 1475 to 1564 and is celebrated for his excellence of the power of drawing and invention that provided the foundation for all the arts. His drawing skills, design, sculpture, painting, and architecture all combined to give him the reputation of "The Divine One" by his contemporaries. The exhibition showed a range of over 200 works by the artist that was pulled together from 50 public and private collections across the United States and Europe. The exhibit opened in November and is on view through February 12, 2018. Below are just two of his incredible artworks I saw at the Met. #MetMichelangelo

During my visit there was a magnificent exhibit of the British artist David Hockney that showcases 60 years of his art career. I highly recommend visiting this exhibit that is at the Met Fifth Avenue through February 25, 2018. David Hockney's painting address translating movement, space, and time into a two dimensional painting. Hockney is probably best known for depicting California swimming pools and backyards in the mid-1960s. Many of his paintings are quite large, perhaps over 6 or 7 feet square. I love how he uses Acrylic paint on canvas.

David Hockney, "Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two figures)" Acrylic on Canvas, 1972.

Hockney began to experiment with the iPad shortly after it came out and used an app for drawing to produce his first works of art in this new medium. Hockney used his iPad and put together this three-screen animation of his views through his bedroom window, 2010-2013. I've included a short video clip for you to experience it for yourself!

This Limited Edition Lithograph of "Pushing Up" 1993 was for sale, unframed, for $14,500 in the gift shop at the end of the exhibit.

Robert Motherwell, "Elegy to the Spanish Republic No. 70" Oil on Canvas, 1961.

Alexander Calder created a series of moving sculptures called mobiles that he created in a diverse range of abstract configurations. Shown here, is a free-moving wind mobile that is carefully balanced on a movable pivot point. I learned that he was inspired by the work of Joan Miro, and the similar shapes and forms can be observed in Calder's mobiles. In the video below, you can see the kinetic nature of his mobile, "Mobile" created in 1941 from painted aluminum, steel, steel rod, and wire.

I took this photo of this Pablo Picasso painting because it is titled, "At the Lapin Agile" painted in 1905. It was this painting that inspired Steve Martin's terrific play, "Picasso at the Lapin Agile"!

Here are some of Claude Monet's masterpieces...

​Auguste Rodin's sculptures are simply incredible.

​If you're ever in Paris, the Rodin Museum is not to miss!

Emanuel Leutze, "Washington Crossing the Delaware, Oil on Canvas, 1851. Depiction of George Washington and his men crossing the Delaware River from Pennsylvania to New Jersey to attack the Hessians.

William Merritt Chase, "At The Seaside", Oil on Canvas, 1892.

While it wassn't the focus of my visit to the Met, I did come across some very cool Asian art, such as this huge statue that towered from above. Also on view was Japanese Bamboo Art. Bamboo has long been an integral part of the Japanese lifestyle and culture. Bamboo is the fastest growing grass plant and was used in traditional architecture and to create objects such as flower baskets, fans, etc. The exhibition featured more than 90 baskets and sculptures from the Abbey Collection, a private collection of bamboo artwork.

And now for the Surprise... Not at the met, I came across one of Ai Weiwei's latest temporary public art installations at the foot of Central Park.

Ai Weiwei’s citywide public art project "Good Fences Make Good Neighbors" was officially unveiled on October 12, 2017, and will remain for four months throughout New York Ciity. It includes major sculptural installations in Central Park, Washington Square Park, and smaller installations at some bus shelters and lamp-post banners. The public art he created addressed the growing hostility towards immigrants, the refugee crisis, and the rise of nationalism world-wide.

Located at one of the main entrances to Central Park, Weiwei's "Gilded Cage" takes the concept of a fence and turns it into a large scale interactive object.

And lastly, I came across these wonderful sculptures created by artist, Jaume Plensa, that are permanently installed at the Grand Hyatt Hotel near Grand Central Terminal. I learned that these two huge sculptures are reminiscent of the Moai sculptures on Easter Island.

Overall, my visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art was simply amazing. I could have spent the entire day looking at all the art and taking photos of every piece of artwork, but I could only include these 6 dozen or so photos! I wish I had the time to visit Met Cloisters and Met Breuer as well. Well, reason for another visit! I hope you enjoyed this blog and I welcome your comments! Have a friend who would enjoy reading this blog? Then please share it with them via email or social media! You can click on the Facebook and Twitter buttons below!